Thanks Seller!

Thanks to everyone who voted for the title of my blog! Rocco & Co. got 50% of the votes, hence the new blog header.

Now for a little story about why I have not been blogging lately....

The plan for my next entry was going to be about our new house and all the differences between our rental and our first home. Instead, this entry is about how we are still in our rental.

I have been looking for a house to buy since the summer of 2007. We found a place we loved, but this happened to be about the time the banks were beginning to get nervous about all the crazy loans they gave out. We had gotten pre-qualified for a certain amount, but when it came time for closing the bank suddenly required that we had 6 months of mortgage payments in reserve beyond our down payment and closing costs. We didn't have it and found our current rental instead.

Fast forward to this past summer, June 2008. I began looking at houses again. In August, we found it; it was a great house in a fabulous neighborhood. The reason we could afford it is because it was a short sale. A short sale is when the seller gets permission from his bank lender to sell the house at less than what he owes instead of going into foreclosure. Permission from the bank can take a long time, but we had a lease until the end of October and our landlord was open to extending it month to month, so we decided to go for it. Four months later, at the end of December, we got the approval! We were to close January 23rd, and so all of January I was busy doing the various necessary things to move and close on the house. The evening of January 22nd, I got a call from my realtor telling me that the seller was rethinking the sale. He thought he might be better off if the house went into foreclosure. He wanted to think about it. Never mind the last five months, he wanted to think about it the night before closing. He strung us along until the 29th (the banks deadline for the short sale) and then got an extension and strung us along a few more days before deciding to let the house go into foreclosure. Thanks for that, seller!

Anyway, we found another house in the same great neighborhood and we have a contract on it. Needless to say I am cautiously hopeful. If this house does not become ours, I might cry. I am not going to blog about the differences of the new house and the rental until we actually close, so stay tuned to the saga.